BRIGHTON — Brighton coach Paul Ash knows what guard Dana Schemanske is capable of, but also knows there is only one basketball to go around.

"We're real excited about her," Ash said. "She's so close to breaking out. I honestly see her as a 15-point-a-game scorer, I really do. But you've got (Julianna) Pietila getting a number of shots and Emily Dunn getting a number of shots. There are only so many shots to go around."

Both the coach and player are being patient as she progresses during her junior year.

A glimpse of Schemanske's potential was on display Tuesday, as she scored a season-high 13 points in Brighton's 47-31 victory over Pinckney.

She came into the game averaging 8.1 points, with a high of 12 in the opener at Linden. Her performance Tuesday bumped her average to 8.8, moving her into second on the team behind Pietila's 15.6 average.

"He wants me to get up there, but it'll come with work and time," Schemanske said.

Pietila had a game-high 14 points, sinking four 3-pointers, as Brighton improved to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in the KLAA West with its fifth straight victory.

Up next for the Bulldogs is a showdown at home with Hartland, which is also 7-1 overall and 2-0 in the West.

Even though Hartland is on the schedule this week, Brighton didn't look past a Pinckney team that is 3-5 overall and 0-2 in the West. Two of the losses were buzzer-beaters and all have been to quality opponents.

"We had really good, intense, hard practices, knowing what we had to face this week," Ash said. "We beat a really good team tonight, make no mistake about it. I don't care what their record indicates, because they've lost to some state-caliber teams. I knew what we were facing this week, and it might get even harder on Friday."

The Bulldogs came out on a mission, jumping out to a 20-4 lead by the midway mark of the second quarter.

Brighton broke open a 4-2 game with a 16-0 run, during which Pinckney went 9:30 between scores.

"Our intensity was really high," Brighton freshman center Sophie Dziekan said. "We didn't let them have a second to breathe."

They trimmed a 31-12 halftime deficit to 38-23 after three quarters. The closest they got was 38-26 with 5:12 left in the game.

"We started off slow," Pinckney coach Jarrett Cogswell said. "Once we got settled and played our fast-paced game, we were able to do some better things in the second half; that's our style. We didn't play that first quarter the way we wanted to and we had to dig ourselves out of a big hole. We had a better effort in the second half, but we need more effort for four quarters."